Victoria exported a record $8.07 billion in food and fibre products in 2010-11, and a similar result is expected this financial year.
Exports jumped by $1.3 billion despite the high Australian dollar, with farmers benefiting from the end of the drought and strong global commodity prices.
Victoria continues to be the nation’s leading agricultural exporter, according to the Department of Primary Industries report released on Monday.
The state accounted for 86 per cent of the nation’s dairy exports alone, worth $1.96 billion. Japan is Victoria’s largest market for dairy exports, valued at $353 million.
Victoria’s leading food and fibre export markets are China ($1.6 billion), Japan ($756 million), New Zealand ($433 million), Indonesia ($425 million, and the United States ($350 million).
Agriculture Minister Peter Walsh said country Victoria was again making a major contribution to the economy after the end of the drought.
“It is a record,” he told reporters.
Grain exports rose from $442 million to $1.13 billion at a time when Russia had a major drought and there was a world shortage of grain.
Mr Walsh said the value of grain exports would be down this financial year because the price had fallen.
“(But) the value of dairy products is still high, the value for red meat is still high and the fibre and skin sector is still high, so we’d anticipate the numbers for this current financial year would be similar.”
Victoria’s food and fibre exports to India, where Premier Ted Baillieu is leading a trade delegation next month, were valued at just $209 million in 2010-11.
Australian Bulk Alliance (ABA) chief executive Simon McNair said about one million tonnes of wheat would move through the Port Terminal Facility in West Melbourne this financial year.
“We’re filling it up every two weeks and emptying it,” he told reporters.
He said finding skilled workers, particularly during the harvest period, was a challenge for ABA and its competitors.
“We have to do a lot of training and go through a lot of people,” he said.
